Google, of course, has been scanning books and documents for years as part of its partnership with libraries around the world. Several million dollars will now fund a special implementation of the technology, as the Dead Sea fragments will all be scanned using a NASA-developed imaging system. The scans will be hosted by Google, which will pair them with translation tools.

Project results should be online with months, though the complete set of scrolls will take years to digitize.

At a press briefing in Israel, the IAA's Pnina Shor talked about how the Google deal will help preserve the scrolls. "From the minute all of this will go online there will be no need to expose the scrolls anymore, and anyone in his office or (on) his couch will be able to see it," she said—though we do have to wonder how many couch potatoes are really itching to read The War Scroll off its actual parchment.